Speech at Philadelphia

[July 12, 1853]

Hon. Jefferson Davis responded, and said that he begged leave, on the
part of those members of the cabinet who were present, to return their
cordial thanks for the compliment tendered them. They stood in the
attitude of those who enjoy the advantage of reflected light; yet they
did not think they were indebted for the consideration of those present,
merely because they were members of the cabinet – it was rather because
they were American citizens, and brought within the circle of
Pennsylvania hospitality, that compliment was bestowed on them.
[Applause] Thanks to the increased facility of intercourse, Pennsylvania
hospitality was not to be limited hereafter, as it had been heretofore,
by the slow progress of the old wagon and Conestoga horse, nor by the
yet more rapid march of the coach, nor by the yet more rapid means of
the railroad. No! Socially, Pennsylvania was tied by lightning to every
portion of the older settlements of the United States, and with her coal
and iron she was about to establish commercial relations with the slope
of the Pacific, and to look over into that unknown region of Asia which
includes China and Persia. [Tremendous cheering, which prevailed for
many minutes.] These were results to be anticipated from the foresight
and energy of the people; not to be effected by stretching the powers of
the federal government beyond their legitimate sphere. They knew he
belonged to the strict-construction school, which never turned to the
right nor to the left to serve any purpose of expediency.

The President (interposing) observed that he was certain of that.

Mr. Davis resumed: Within the limits of the States they would touch
nothing in disregard of State sovereignty and right of jurisdiction; and
in this he spoke not for himself alone, but also for his honored chief.
[Applause.] But when they looked to their recent possessions on the
slope of the Pacific, there were two things which arrested attention –
the conflicting interests of a different commerce, resulting from the
want of easy and rapid communication; and the difficulty of fulfilling
one of the great ends of our Union, that of giving adequate protection
by mutual defence. Upon the pages of history, running back to the
remotest antiquity, nothing is remarked more generally than that
mountains have divided nations, and therefore it had been perhaps
somewhat fancifully argued , that as the light and shadow fell upon the
one side or the other, so would the character of men be modified, and
government changed. But it had not been, in the progress of mind in its
conflict with matter, that the useful sciences in the United States had
advanced – had gained additional force; and had they not reached the
period when they could triumph over this natural obstacle – when they
could skip the mountains, tunnel them, or pass them by means known to
civil engineering, thus combining opposite interests, uniting remote
localities, and socially, commercially, and politically binding men
together, so that the fluctuations of light should become to them as
nothing? [Great applause] He had said that he was a strict
constructionist; but he had always mocked the idea that the constitution
had one construction within the limits of the United States, and
another outside of them. [Applause.] He had always repelled the
supposition that this government could build a road outside of the
United States, and could not build one within it Our constitution was
formed to bind the States together, to provide for the common defence,
to concentrate the power of all for the protection of each, to throw
their united shields over every State, over every locality, over every
ship and individual of the Union. [Great applause.] The other question,
which involved the integrity of the Pacific possessions, was still
closer to fraternal feeling and to sense of duty; it was one to which he
knew the heart of Pennsylvania would respond – it was the question of
protection, which in her strength she had always shown herself willing
to throw over the weak. In the event of a war with any of the powerful
nations of the earth, California and Oregon are exposed to attack.
Fraternity, chivalry, and constitutional obligation would combine to
claim for them adequate protection. Could it, with our present means, be
given? Could we rely upon an extra-territorial line of communication?
If the Pacific possessions should be threatened by a hostile fleet, the
government would have no sufficient navy there to interpose for their
protection, if that hostile fleet belonged to and fairly represented
such a power as England or France. It would take all the navy of
the United States to keep a road open which would cross either of the
isthmuses of this continent. And while the navy of the United States was
thus employed, what would be more easy than for such a maritime power
as either of these to strike at those possessions, and rend them from
these States, even to the extent of the gold regions which lay behind
the coast. If, then, as a purely military question, it is necessary to
have an intercommunication, so that the government’s munitions of war
and men could be throw upon the Pacific for its defence, the application
of the war power of the government to this case would be within the
strict limits of the constitution. [Enthusiastic applause.] But if it
could be shown, and he always held his opinion open to correction from
any quarter, that these means were not required, were not necessary—and
by necessary he meant absolutely required—or if any one would show the
other means which would answer as a substitute—how the duties of the
government could be preformed without this auxiliary more effectively,
more economically, with less exercise of the general power of the
government—then , as a strict-construction democrat, he would accept the
proposition. [Applause.] Under every ingenious construction which had
been placed upon the various powers of the government to bend them to
temporary convenience or individual advantage—under every ramification
which ingenuity had suggested to supply by isthmus railroads and canals,
the wants of commerce resulting from that deficiency of
intercommunication—he had insisted that the end should be the discharge
of a delegated trust, and that the means should be necessary to the
performance of the duty. To defend and maintain the inhabitants and
territory of our Pacific possessions was undeniably a delegated trust;
and the question was, What means were necessary to the discharge of the
duty? In vain had it been attempted to be shown him how the military
power of this government, which consisted in the sinews and strong
hearts of its citizens, could be used on the slope of the Pacific,
unless there was a railroad to transmit it. [Applause.] If, then, it
could be done by such means only, and if that hazard existed on the
shores of the ocean, he would say that the rest followed as a
consequence. Within the territories belonging to the United States the
general government could certainly construct roads for military
purposes. This power, so long acted on, would not change its nature with
the change of the material to be used in construction; and it surely
constituted no objection if the means employed for a legitimate object
should contribute to the increase and development of interests which
they were not specially designed to promote. Whether by these or other
means effected, he would rejoice in the fulfillment of the anticipation
that the smoke of Pennsylvania coal might be seen on the desert waste,
beneath the cloud-capped mountains, and Pennsylvania iron, with the very
stamp of her own foundries upon it, might be seen creeping in a long
serpentine track to the slopes of the Pacific. [Applause.]

It was not Pennsylvania's mineral resources alone which were to be
benefited in connexion with these great works. She is the great
agricultural State of the Union. Her mines and manufactures, with their
concentrated power, wielding political influence, had attracted
attention greater than that which belonged to her agriculture, yet her
agricultural interest was many times more important. Nay, more: she had a
commercial interest, which exceeded her mineral and manufacturing
interests combined. And why should not commerce, the handmaiden of
agriculture, bear from her huge and well-filled barns the accumulated
store for which the millions of Asia
were suffering. Happy in the unfailing abundance of their home, their
only want was new markets to consume their surplus store. Not only free
from want, but from the fear of it, their attention could safely be
turned to the suffering of other lands.

And there was something which seemed to him ought to swell the heart
of Pennsylvania with peculiar pride when she looked back to the land
from which her sturdy farmers sprung, and saw upon her own broad bosom
those crops which could hush the wail of hunger when the years of famine
came upon her fatherland. The political temple she had reared in the
woods of Penn stood with open portals, from which went forth an
invitation and a welcome, not merely to a land of refuge, but of
support. [Applause.]

He felt that the occasion was not one to wander into broad themes of discussion. He had trespassed too much already.

[Cries of go on! go on!]

Mr. Davis, (resuming.) He would close by referring , with their
permission, to one who sat near to him, his friend, so long the
representative of Pennsylvania, and whose name came unbidden when her
name was mentioned. [Immense applause.]

He gave the health of Hon. James Buchanan.

From The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Volume 5, pp. 29-32. Transcribed from the Washington Union, August 4, 1853. Originally published July 17, the text was corrected and revised by Davis at the editor's request.